The present invention relates to an emergency flight safety device for a person in the cockpit of an aircraft, the device including a full-face mask and an integrated display with at least one display area for displaying flight data.
Recent incidents in civil and military aviation that were initialized by fire, fume or smoke resulting from malfunctioning electrical appliances or wiring, have caused tremendous loss of human life and substantial financial damage. In an emergency situation it is vital that the pilot of an aircraft have a clear view of the critical flight information data, full control over the orientation of the aircraft in the three-dimensional space, and proper breathing conditions in case of loss of cabin pressure or health-critical fume. In addition, the safety of an emergency landing is substantially enhanced when the pilot has an undisturbed view of the final touchdown spot.
Information displaying methods according to the state of the art, however, fail to provide the pilot with the critical flight information data in certain emergency situations, especially in situations where smoke has developed. State of the art is either described as dedicated breathing equipment against nuclear, biological or chemical contamination (NBC protection equipment), as e.g. disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,332, or as improvement of a helmet mounted display by means of a specific cathode ray tube installation, as e.g. disclosed in EP-A-0 301 997. The European Patent Application publication 0 252 281 and the U.S. Pat. No. 5,601,078 disclose a not specifically determined breathing apparatus that can be used underground or in non-airborne embodiments. Attached to the breathing mask, on the outside, a removable, mask mounted monocular display is disclosed, capable of displaying measured data of low complexity with the help of a dedicated illumination system.
All these information-displaying methods have in common that they do not allow a pilot to fly an aircraft in emergency situations involving heavy smoke.
Existing emergency devices for airplanes have concentrated on providing the cockpit crew members with smoke goggles and an oxygen mask in case of loss of cabin pressure (see, e.g., D. Wilkins xe2x80x9cHelmet Mounted Displays in Transport Emergency Conditionsxe2x80x9d. SPIE Conference on Helmet- and Head-Mounted Displays IV, SPIE Vol. 3689, 206-209, 1999). Alternatively, full-face masks have been used to protect the pilot""s eyes from smoke (R. Stxc3xcnkel xe2x80x9cAll you need is oxygenxe2x80x9d Fliegermagazin 9/99, 32-35, September 1999) or the combination of a breathing mask with a protective hood that can enclose the pilot""s head (U.S. Pat. No. 5,115,804) have been proposed. The disadvantage of all these approaches is the reduced visibility under heavy smoke conditions. Smoke drastically reduces the readability of instruments located in the instrument flight panel. As a possible solution to this problem, Wilkins discusses an inflatable plastic shield over the instrument panel that may help to somewhat reduce the amount of smoke between the operator and the panel. Alternatively, a separate, head mounted display could directly provide the crew members with critical flight information. For situations in which the visibility is reduced to less than a few centimeters and in order to prevent eye irritation because, such a display is preferably combined with some sort of smoke goggles. This latter approach is then, within certain limits, also suitable for situations in which the smoke contamination is strong and the instrument representation has to be very close to the human eye.
The above-mentioned solutions fail to suggest an appropriate integrated safety device approach. Such a safety device should allow the wearer in emergency situations not only to have access to certain information, but to indeed pilot an aircraft if the view is completely blurred and if the surrounding air is contaminated or toxic. It should, in addition, be possible to be made independent of the cockpit power supply in the case of a power failure or a deliberate switching off of the power supplies during emergency procedures.
It is a purpose of the present invention to provide an emergency flight safety device that overcomes disadvantages of present safety devices and especially enables the pilot to safely land an aircraft which is troubled by a smoke incident.
The emergency flight safety device according to the invention comprises a full-face mask with a see-through, multifunctional display. The device may be quickly deployed, and therefore allows immediate control over the aircraft by the cockpit crew in the case of an emergency. The integration of the head-mounted display into the full-face mask prevents smoke from disturbing the clear perception of displayed information and avoids eye irritation. It provides an undisturbed vision and access to flight information data as well as safe breathing conditions. Each display area covers a substantial part of the person""s field of vision. Therefore, from relevant data such as track, position, speed, altitude and the position of the aircraft in the three dimensional space (inertial navigation data), the pilot can control the aircraft even if he does not see anything of the real world outside at all. By providing this display covering a substantial part of the pilot""s view and by providing the opportunity to incorporate stereoscopic vision of visualized data, such as a virtual flight path to an emergency landing strip, in bad weather conditions or at night time by means of an infrared camera placed outside the cockpit, this device is a first step to a virtual cockpit.
In case of the development of health-critical smoke it is important to have access to purified air when cabin air pressure is relatively high. An increasing volume of surrounding cabin air in standard oxygen demand systems is mixed with a decreasing volume of oxygen as soon as the cabin pressure is approaching standard atmospheric pressure (cf Stxc3xcnkel). The use of such a standard oxygen demand system would thus lead to the intoxication of the crew in case of the development of health critical smoke. The emergency flight safety device according to the invention therefore further comprises an oxygen and air supply apparatus for supplying oxygen and/or air to the interior of the mask i.e. a powered purified air respiratory system, which ensures that no intoxicated air gets into the mask.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the multifunctional head-mounted display is structured into a virtual area where critical flight information data is displayed and an area where real data such as video images obtained by an external camera can be overlaid onto critical flight information data, enhancing the perception of an actual situation, especially in the final phase of an emergency landing.